Industry Payments to Academic Neurosurgeons in 2021: An Open Payments Cross-Sectional Analysis

Introduction: The Open Payments Program (OPP) was a database started in 2013 by the US government to report payments made by the industry to physicians. Neurosurgery is a technologically advanced field that relies heavily on the latest innovations for complex treatment of its patient population. As such, we sought to explore the financial relationship between academic neurosurgeons and the industry.

Methods: We reviewed OPP data for the year 2021 of all faculty neurosurgeons affiliated with a neurosurgery residency program. We analyzed trends related to general payments, research payments, associated research funding, ownership and investment interest, name of company making payment(s), monetary amount of payment(s) per company, and number of payment(s) per company.

Results: Industry payments to 1,151 US academic neurosurgeons were reviewed. They received $121.4 Million in payments. Three hundred thirty-two companies made 18,466 payments. The average payments per neurosurgeon were about 6-fold that of all physicians. Vascular and spine subspecialties had the highest payments. A higher proportion of research money was allocated to the Pacific division, while all other categories (including total amount) were higher in the Eastern US. Most financial contributions were made by a small number of companies.

Conclusion : Neurosurgery has been rated by many as a field fueled by research, innovation, and technology. In 2021, academic neurosurgeons had a strong relationship with the industry as reflected in the OPP data. While the true impact on patient care cannot be directly measured, the advancement of the field relies heavily on these collaborations.